Somewhere Out There
by Tracy Space Cowgirl
Summary: Just like mice in a very famous and spiffy movie, our favorite Roswellians are separated from the ones they love. A little bit of foof, A little bit of Angst.


Somewhere Out There

By Tracy (biancaheart@yahoo.com)

Rating: PG-13

Category:  post-series fic, cc

Summary:  Just like mice in a very famous and spiffy movie, our favorite Roswellians are separated from the ones they love.  

Disclaimer:  I don't own Roswell.  Not doing this for money.  "Nuff Said.  Don't own American Tale or the song.  So please don't sue.

Somewhere out there  
Beneath the pale moonlight  
Someone's thinking of me  
And loving me tonight

Moonlight made him think.

He'd take, well either coffee or whiskey, more often the whiskey, and go out in the backyard. 

And he'd stare at the sky.

It sobered Jim Valenti to know that he wasn't alone.  Each of those bright twinkling stars- they could be planets, and one of those planets, he wasn't sure which, had changed his life forever.  That planet sent a ship to Roswell that crashed.

  
The crash fascinated his father.  Ruined his relationship with his father- often just known as "that alien freak."

The crash handed him the family obsession, changed his life that day when Liz Parker was shot in the crash down.

  
The crash ended up saving his son.  Without Max Evans, Kyle would be buried in the Roswell Cemetary…instead of…

Instead of being on the run from the FBI.

Maybe not the best alternative.

He was selfish.  He wanted his son, now more of a man than a boy, safe asleep inside.  He wanted Kyle to go to college, get  a job, get married, have kids. 

Jim didn't know what scared him more- the prospect of Kyle and the others being captured and experimented on by the FBI, or the prospect of them never coming back.  If he never saw or heard from his son again…

He was afraid he would live a pretty lonely life.  

  
A pretty sad life.

An overaged deputy, living by himself .   No friends, a grown up and absent son, an ex- wife that ran for the hills long ago.  A prospective girlfriend that currently wasn't speaking to him after reading Liz Parker's diary.

Not to mention he had a pretty good chance of popping and sparking like tinfoil as well.

Max Evans had saved his life, too.

Maybe he should have gone with them.

He finishes his drink and walks inside.

Jim takes out the old photo albums, a habit that's become his nightly addiction.  He sits on the couch and revels in the past.

A picture.

Kyle, five years old, in footie pajamas.  A chubby face and unruly hair.  Sleeping on the couch, snuggled with Mr. Squishels.

Jim picks up Mr. Squishels, who is now a permanent resident on his couch.  

  
When Michelle left, Kyle had given Mr. Squishels to help him get through the night.  

Kyle was too old for a stuffed elephant now, and besides, he didn't exactly have a chance to stop by and get the creature after graduation.   Jim couldn't help thinking that Kyle had left Mr. Squishels on purpose- to help him get through this, to help him be strong.

  
He hugs the elephant, and starts to sing a lullaby he once sang to Kyle and his most beloved toy.  Tears cause his voice to shake.

  
"Somewhere out there…."   

  
He rocks the elephant, pretending for a second that it is his son.

**_Somewhere out there  
Someone's saying a prayer  
That we'll find one another  
In that big somewhere out there_**

****

"I Love You, You Love Me…"  The radio blared.

"For the love of Buddha."  Kyle reached over and changed the radio.  "What in the world was that?"

A commercial for Denny's filled the car.

"Radio Disney, I think."  Maria said, from the shotgun passenger's seat. 

"Scary."

Kyle looked in the back of the van.  Liz, Max, Michael, Isabel- they were all asleep.

"How come they get to sleep?"

"You slept all day, Kyle.  It's your turn to drive.  Quit whining!"

"I'm not whining!"

Maria reached over and turned up the radio.  "See, I'm not listening to you!"

"Somewhere out there….Someone's saying a prayer…"

"Hey, I know this song!"  Kyle exclaimed.

Maria started to sing along with the radio, softly.   She made it through one verse before breaking down in tears.

"You okay?"

She shook her head.  "I….miss….my….mom…"

Kyle carefully took one hand off the wheel and patted Maria on the shoulder.  "I know.  It's okay."

"I…my mom used to sing this song…we used to sing this song together…I loved the movie, and we used to have movie nights, and she said if we were ever apart, but I didn't think that we'd ever be apart, and now we're both alone…and I didn't get to say goodbye!"

"My dad used to sing this song too.  Before I saw the movie and became convinced that Fievel was evil."

"Fievel was not evil!  He was the sweetest little mouse."  

"Evil.  Evilness in the form of a mouse.   He put Jerry and Mickey to shame.  And don't even get me started on Minnie, that vixen."

"You have a serious mouse phobia."

"You're noticing?"

Maria was silent for a moment.  "Do you think she misses me?"

"Huh?  Minnie Mouse?  I didn't even know that you guys had met."

"My mother, you nerf herder."

Kyle glanced over at Maria.  " I don't think.  I know."

"What do you think…how do you…what do you…"

"Spit it out already!"

"What do you think she did when she found out?"

"About the ever burgeoning 'I know an Alien' Club?"

Maria nodded.

"Well, I'm guessing she went right to my Dad after graduation.  Probably was waiting at the station or the house, trying to figure out what in the heck happened.  Demanded to know where in the hell you were, and what happened.  Don't know if Dad cracked then and told her the truth, or if he made up some lame assed excuse….and when she read Liz's diary, she probably fainted…or yelled hysterically at my father for keeping this from her."

"Wow, you're pretty good."

"You had Michael's house to escape to when our parents decided to play nookie motel.  Social king that I was, I was an unhappy fly on the wall."

"So poetic, Kyle."

"Thank you."

Maria turned off the radio.  

Softly, she began to sing "Somewhere Out There."

A few moments later, Kyle joined in on harmony. 

****

**_And even though I know how very far apart we are  
It helps to think we might be wishing  
On the same bright star_**

Of all the things she expected, the last thing was hearing Jim's voice softly singing.

"Somewhere Out There".  Maria had loved that song, she remembered.   Somehow, Maria had finagled her into taking along both Liz and Alex—three times, to see that movie.  She'd worn out the VHS tape, playing it everyday after school for awhile.

"Shit."  Amy cursed under her breath.  

Referring to Maria in passed tense.

Maria wasn't dead…

She was in jeopardy.

Every cell of her body wanted to hop in the Jetta and find Maria.  Find Maria and bring her back to Roswell where she belonged.

Fighting back tears,  she knocked on the door.

  
Her relationship with Jim Valenti…was complicated at best.  

Growing up, Jim had been the Golden Boy of Roswell, the football player and homecoming king.  She'd been the awkward hippie born just a few years too late, taking on injustices and protesting beside her parents when her bike still had training wheels.

And one day, he'd saved her life.

She went out in the desert, searching for specimens for Biology class.  She'd gotten lost, and spent one horrifying night by herself in the desert.  Noon, the next day, Deputy Jim Valenti had appeared, holding  a canteen of water.  

That was enough to win her fourteen year old heart.

Jim hadn't felt the same way.

He started dating Michelle, and then they were engaged.

She'd fallen in love with Craig.

Then Jim had arrested her for protesting one day.  That hot, hot, day was the first time she'd kissed Jim Valenti.

But they didn't get together.  Jim had Kyle, she had Maria.

And then, suddenly, in 1999, both divorced with teenagers, they started dating.  On again, and off again.

Jim opened the door.

Amy saw the traces of tears on his face, and smelled the slight scent of whiskey.

"Jim Valenti."

"Amy….I'm sorry…"

She cut off his apology with a kiss.

"Don't ever keep things like this from me again, mister."

She kissed him again for good measure.

"Now invite me in and tell me the whole story, from the beginning.

**_And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby  
If helps to think we're sleeping  
Underneath the same big sky_**

****

A lullaby woke Max Evans up.

Maria and Kyle were singing, a song from some movie when they were little.  

He just couldn't think of what movie that was from.

Liz was sleeping soundly for once, her visions silent for the moment.  He wouldn't wake her.

"Iz!  Hey Izzy!"  Max shook his sister, sleeping in the seat in front of him.

Isabel's eyes snapped open.  "Max…go away."

"What movie is that song from?"

"What song?  What movie?"

"I don't know….that's why I'm asking you."

Isabel just shook her head and closed her eyes.

"Iz!"

"Why don't you just ask Kyle or Maria?"  She snapped, pulling her blanket close.  

  
The thought had never occurred to him.

**_Somewhere out there  
If love can see us through  
Then we'll be together  
Somewhere out there  
Out where dreams come true_**

****

Diane put the kettle on the stove.

Hot tea sounded like a good idea.  Good old Sleepytime Tea.

She couldn't sleep.

The house was so quiet.

The kids had been gone for awhile.

She should be used to this.

Isabel had been married, for crying out loud.  And Max had been out there, living with Michael.

She'd heard from the Parkers that Liz and Max had gotten married.

She missed the days when everything was simple.  When she had a family, the world's most gorgeous boy and girl.  

Knowing that they were alien didn't make her love them any less. 

She felt honored, blessed to be their mother.

Diane just didn't feel like a mother anymore.  Her kids were gone, left in what had seemed a second.  Gone someplace where she couldn't just pick up the phone and call them, or stop by and have coffee with Isabel.  

Her grandchild was in foster care, to protect him.

She sat her head down on the formica of the counter and cried.

A pair of arms encircled her, secured her.

"Oh Phillip."

"I know.  I miss them too."

Together, they cried for childhood and innocence that had disappeared all too quickly.

**_And even though I know how very far apart we are  
It helps to think we might be wishing  
On the same bright star_**

****

Max hadn't moved.

She was just dreaming.

Weird dream.

She still couldn't believe that she was so lucky.  So lucky to have Max.  

Sometimes she felt like she cheated destiny…but maybe being Mrs. Max Evans was her fate.  After everything that conspired to keep them apart, they still ended up getting married.  They were still together, still in love.  A little scared, more mature, a little more cautious.  But still in love.

She missed Roswell.

She missed her mother, and her father.  She missed the Crashdown.  She missed Amy and Sheriff Jim, and the high school chemistry lab.

She missed Alex.

After all the pain, all the struggle, she was still happy.

Even though the FBI was chasing them, she was happy.

Liz had gotten her wish.

And she had faith that eventually, it would be a happily ever after.

**_And when the night winds starts to sing a lonesome lullaby  
It helps to think we're sleeping  
Underneath the same big sky_**

****

Jeff sat out on Liz's balcony.

He half expected her to stick her head out the window and groan "Dad, you're cramping my style!"

Liz didn't live here anymore.

His little girl, the eight year old who had wanted to be a waitress so bad that Nancy had made a mini uniform for a Halloween costume.  The eleven year old that dragged them to every science museum within a 500 mile radius.  The fourteen year old afraid of going off to High School.  The fifteen year old, kissing Kyle Valenti in the stairwell, when she didn't know he was watching.  The sixteen year old…

The sixteen year old that had almost died.  That did die…or that would…

After reading her diary, Jeff was more impressed with his daughter then he thought possible.

Liz had changed, but he'd chalked that up to teenage hormones and pressures.  And the bad influence of one Max Evans.

His little girl had put up with more heartbreak, more pain than a child should have to.

Married or not, she was still a child.  

She'd still be a child when she was 50, as far as he was concerned.

And he'd thought he'd grown up too fast.

He'd turned out okay.  He had a good restaurant, made a decent living, had a beautiful wife-even if she wasn't his first love, he was devoted to Nancy.

And somewhere out there, Liz Parker was living one great adventure.

He prayed for her safety.

He prayed that she would return today.

And he'd been just a little bit giddy over the fact that Liz still saw herself as Liz Parker- still kept on using her middle name- even though she was married to Max.

Maybe a little bit too giddy.

A head emerged from the window, along with a torso, hands, legs, and feet.

Her face was streamed with tears.

"Oh, Jeff."  Nancy sighed, and fell into her husbands arms.

As he wrapped his arms around his wife, Jeff imagined encircling Liz in the hug as well.

A hug that reached a thousand miles.

****

**_Somewhere out there  
If love can see us through (can see us through)  
Then we'll be together  
Somewhere out there  
Out where dreams come true_**

Michael had been awake the whole freaking time.

He didn't sleep well in cars.

Since this whole thing with the FBI started, he didn't sleep well at all.

He'd heard the Barney song—thank God for Kyle's quick reaction on that one…and the banter between Maria and Kyle.  Their gentle singing almost soothed him to sleep.  

Until Max started bouncing around, annoying the hell out of him.

How could Max not know that was from "An American Tale"?  

Michael could still remember the first time he saw it at the Evans' house.  Man, that house had seemed like a palace.  Actually having drinks and popcorn during a movie?  And blankets if you got cold?  Max and Isabel had pooped out before the end credits rolled, but Michael sat, transfixed.

He'd saved the meager allowance that Hank gave him- when he wasn't drunk off his ass- and bought a cassette tape of the song.  And he played it over and over again- on the stereo when Hank was at work, or on Isabel's Barbie tape player.  

He'd actually cried the night that Hank destroyed that tape.

Hank had the habit of destroying all the good things in his life.

Michael felt soothed, though, hearing Maria and Kyle sing that song.

He remembered why that song had meant so much to him.  

Michael's greatest dream had always been to have a family.  To have a place where you were unconditionally loved, even if you weren't liked much.  To have a group of people that thought you were important and treated you with respect.  A group of people that would give up anything, just to be there when you needed him.

Michael was convinced that his home was in a galaxy, far, far, away.

Suddenly Kyle stopped singing.  "Look!  IHOP!"  He yelled jubilantly.  "Score!"

Kyle got off at the exit and proceeded to pull into the brightly lit parking lot.

Everyone started to climb out of the van.  All were a little bit groggy and very hungry.

"Hey Cheesehead!"  Maria called.  "You coming?"

Michael looked at his friends, all-waiting by the van door for him.

"Yeah."  He said with a smile.

'Maybe little Michael was right', he thought as he linked arms with his friends inside the IHOP. 'The greatest thing in the world is a family.  But I was wrong thinking that my family was far away.  They're right here.'

For the first time since they left Roswell, Michael ate a meal without worrying about the FBI.


End file.
